PAUL FARNES: FIGHTER ACE
Having sadly passed away in January 2020, we take a look back at our last interview with one of the Battle of Britain’s great pilots
Paul Farnes was one of the last survivors of The Few and his death in January, followed in May by Terry Clark, leaves John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway as the final survivor. We spoke to Farnes in 2017 and he shared his experiences of what it was like to participate in that fateful battle.
Born on 16 July 1918, Farnes joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve aged 19 in April 1938. It was fortuitous timing: “Germany was becoming a bit of a nuisance and I think everyone was getting a bit jittery, so I was glad to be in the services.” At this time the British government decided that VRS could do six months in the regular
RAF and Farnes went to south Wales in July 1939. “It was great fun but before I’d finished my six months, war had broken out. I found myself in the air force and ready for war.”
During the Battle of Britain, Farnes was part of 11 Group and on the front line defending London and south-east England. His airborne drill was well rehearsed: “You were given instructions as a squadron by controllers as to whether we were at ‘Readiness’, ‘Availability’ or ‘Standby’ and we had various conditions. With ‘Available’, we had to be able to get airborne in 15-20 minutes. Then you had ‘Readiness’, where you had to be up within a few minutes, or there was ‘Standby’, where you’d be strapped in the cockpit ready to take off.”
Compared to the efficiency on the ground, aerial combat was anarchy. “You took off as a squadron but if you met the enemy you broke up. Once you found the enemy and got stuck into him, you were trying to shoot at the bombers and probably trying to keep an eye open to see where the 109s were coming down, which they usually were. It was a free for all. There wasn’t a regimented thing when you got in a certain position. You just broke up and whipped into the aircraft, trying to find something to shoot at. You’d give them a burst and then break away and you’d be constantly looking.”
The average age of an RAF pilot during the Battle of Britain was just
20. At 21, Farnes was slightly more experienced, and this contributed to his survival. “I was fairly experienced compared to a lot of the chaps. I’d had good training and had flown the Hurricane for quite a few hours before the battle, whereas a lot of the new young pilots had only got about two or three hours. It was useless, you really had to have flown a Hurricane for a few hours to get used to it.”
Farnes would occasionally encounter German pilots in remarkable circumstances. He remembers: “My RT or oxygen didn’t work properly once, so I had to return to base. I lost height, came down to about 450 metres and headed back towards Kenley. I was flying along a railway line and suddenly coming towards me was a Ju 88 German aircraft. I thought ‘Good God!’ so I whipped out, repositioned myself and managed to get behind him. I gave him a couple of bursts and he crashed at Gatwick, just on the point between the airport and the racecourse.” Farnes landed and came face to face with the enemy,
“The station commander took me over to meet the pilot. I went to shake hands with him but he wouldn’t shake hands. It was a natural thing to do as far as I was concerned but he wasn’t interested. One of the gunners was alright but the other was killed. It was particularly poignant for me because I did all my training at Gatwick so it was quite a thing to feel that I shot down an aircraft that crashed there.”
On another occasion, Farnes had an encounter with a German pilot in midair. “I’d shot down a 109 and the pilot bailed out. I watched him coming down and the parachute opened. I waved to him and got a wave back!”
As for his own aircraft, Farnes highly regards the Hurricane. “It was marvellous. It’s a pity that the Spitfire always gets all the credit, although
I can understand it to some extent. People will ask, ‘What did you fly?’ and you say ‘a Hurricane’ and they will reply, ‘Oh… did you fly Spitfires?’ I did fly Spitfires, but not during the Battle of Britain.” Although it’s less famous than the Spitfire, Farnes knew the Hurricane’s virtues: “The Hurricane did all the work and it shot down far more aircraft than the Spitfires. It was a very good aircraft and would take an awful lot more punishment. It was a wooden aircraft really: the framework was wood and canvas whereas the Spitfire was all-metal. I can understand that the Spitfire got a name: it was faster, probably a more beautiful aircraft and wonderful for aerobatics, but if you flew Hurricanes you were happy.”
Farnes and his fellow pilots were also given support from the WAAFS, even outside their regular duties: “There were two sergeant WAAFS who used to come in and they’d make us hot tea with sugar, and they’d also give us toast with beef dripping. That was lovely and it was completely voluntary. They just did it out of the goodness of their hearts; they didn’t have to. That’s sort of the thing that went on, that camaraderie between everybody. We were all helping each other.”
Farnes often stated that he “enjoyed” the battle: “It’s difficult to describe. Everywhere in the Battle of Britain we had marvellous airplanes, wonderful aircraft; you flew several times a day and that’s what you wanted to do. You were doing it for a reason too; you were doing it to protect your country. I knew that there was a chance that I was going to get shot down but chaps like myself had got quite a lot of experience because we’d been in France and knew what the form was. Flying with a bit of excitement thrown in, that’s how I found it. Altogether I thought it was quite enjoyable.”
Despite the odds stacked against the RAF, defeat never crossed Farnes’ mind: “I never remember anyone thinking that we were going to lose, I don’t think it ever occurred to us. People will ask you about what your view was of the battle but as sergeant pilots we probably weren’t ‘in the know’ as much as the officers. The senior officers were in the officers’ mess and things were possibly said that never reached our ears. People ask me,
‘What did you think about the future?’ but
I had no idea. That type of thing didn’t occur to me, but then I’m probably a bit dim!”
“I NEVER REMEMBER ANYONE THINKING THAT WE WERE GOING TO LOSE”